32살, 한국의 젊은 여성 기업가 장성은 대표가 이끄는 국내 스타트업, 요크(YOLK)의 초경량, 초박형 태양광 충전기 ‘솔라페이퍼 (Solar Paper)’가 지난 7월 7일, 크라우드 펀딩 플랫폼 킥스타터 (Kickstarter)를 통해 솔라페이퍼를 선보인 요크는 일주일 만에 2억 원 (20만 달러) 이상의 금액을 모금에 이어 7월 30일 현재 기준으로는 모금액 8억을 넘었다. 9 x 17cm 사이즈에 두께 1.5mm, 무게 60g로 ‘세계에서 가장 얇고 가벼운 태양광 충전기’인 솔라페이퍼는 하나의 패널로 시간 당 2.5W의 전력을 생산한다. 이는 현재 상용화된…

국내 카셰어링 서비스 ‘쏘카(www.socar.kr, SOCAR, 대표 김지만)’가 여름 국내 여행객들을 위해 국내 주요 휴양지에 쏘카존을 마련하고 알뜰 여행객을 공략한다. 쏘카는 여름 휴가철을 맞아 강릉 경포대, 대천해수욕장, 부산 광안리, 다대포 해수욕장, 울산 일산해수욕장, 여수 하멜등대 등 전국의 주요 휴양지에도 쏘카존을 마련해 여행자들도 카셰어링 서비스를 이용할 수 있도록 한다. 또한 전국 각지를 여행하는 대학생이나 청년, 가족단위 여행객들을 위해 대중교통 연계기점의 차량도 확대했다. 전국에서 약 2,900여대의 공유차량을 제공하는 국내 최대 규모의 카셰어링 서비스인 쏘카는 전국의…

Daum Kakao Corp., provider of Korea’s number one messaging app KakaoTalk, today announced the official launch of #Search (pronounced ‘sharp search’) and Channel for KakaoTalk. #Search allows users to search and share information directly from the KakaoTalk chatroom, while Channel allows users to access and enjoy interest-based content from directly within the app. The two new features are unprecedented additions for messenger or SNS services, and they take KakaoTalk a step closer…

On the 23rd August, Soft Bank Ventures confirmed their decision to invest into Brave Company is an internet publishing company. This investment is worth US$670k made up of $420k from Capstone Ventures and $250k from Soft Bank Ventures. Brave Company was formed in 2012 with the purpose of providing a platform optimised for the purposes of online lectures and learning materials. The purpose developed platform professionally organises lecture materials and courses.  …

SparkLabs (www.sparklabs.co.kr), Asia’s leading startup accelerator, is hosting their fifth demo day in Seoul, Korea. With over 1,700 people registered to attend, startup fever in South Korea is reaching an all-time high. “We expect to break the attendance record with over 1,000 people attending our 5th demo day. This is a testament to our track record of selecting promising startups and helping them grow into great companies. The SparkLabs demo day has…

Seoul-based restaurant recommendation service MangoPlate secured 6.7 billion won ($6 million) in funding from a group of global investors of Qualcomm Ventures, Softbank Ventures Korea, and YJ Capital, the venture investment unit of Yahoo Japan. With the latest investment, the total amount of funding received by MangoPlate so far has exceeded 8 billion won($8 million). MangoPlate launched its service in October 2013 at SparkLabs’ 2nd Demo Day. MangoPlate helps its users find restaurants through personalized…

Chutcha is a used car app developed and serviced by Mr Pick.  In the use car O2O space, it is widely known as a market leader. Mr. Pick through their extensive experience in online platforms, provides O2O business solutions.  The startup’s experience has been gathered from IT experts from companies like Naver, Neowiz and Nexon.  Recently, Mr Pick confirmed East Gate Partners will invest US$585k into the company.  Of course, behind East…

A robotics team from South Korea took home the $2 million first-place prize in a competition this weekend to design robots that could aid humans in a natural or man-made disaster. The team is a collaboration between the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Humanoid Robot Research Center and from Rainbow Co., a company that was spun out of the research lab. The team’s humanoid robot, or HUBO, stands 5…

다음카카오(공동대표 최세훈, 이석우)가 하나카드(대표이사 정해붕)와 함께 ‘카카오페이 하나체크카드’를 출시했다. 카카오페이 제휴카드는 모바일 결제에 최적화된 카카오페이만의 전용카드로 모든 가맹점에서 다양한 할인 혜택을 받을 수 있다. 기존의 모바일/PC 환경은 물론 오프라인 결제까지 혜택의 범위가 넓어져 고객의 이용 편의가 더욱 향상될 것으로 예상된다. 이번 ‘카카오페이 하나체크카드’를 기점으로 다양한 카드사와 은행에서 카카오프렌즈 캐릭터를 활용한 디자인의 제휴카드가 출시될 계획이다. ‘카카오페이 하나체크카드’는 하나카드 공식 모바일앱 또는 하나은행 영업점을 통해 발급이 가능하며 카카오페이 모든 가맹점에서 7% 할인, 휴대폰 요금…

Daum Kakao Corp., a leading mobile lifestyle platform provider, today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Path as part of the company’s global expansion efforts. The acquisition will take form in Daum Kakao carrying out an asset acquisition of Path the social network and Path Talk the messaging app. “We created Path as a network that brings users a source of happiness, meaning and connection. We’re very proud of what we’ve accomplished…

The Korean SMBA (Small and Medium Business Administration) agreed to establish a fund , ‘Korean Venture Fund(tentative name ‘Korea Fund’)’ IDG Capital(CEO Xiaoge Xiong), China’s second place venture capital. This fund is as much as $ 910 million USD. After the Korea-China FTA negotiation settlement, small and medium businesses’ interest in entering the Chinese market is increasing tremendously. Amongst this hype, SMBA has brought in ‘China IDG Capital’ which has the know-how of…

Daum Kakao Corp. today reported fiscal year and fourth quarter financial results under Korean-IFRS, the first to reflect the merged company’s consolidated earnings,. Daum Kakao’s consolidated revenue for the quarter was KRW 254 billion, and KRW 898.4 billion for the fiscal year 2014. With mobile services comprising of 53% and 49% of the revenue, respectively, the company continued to strengthen its position as the leading mobile lifestyle platform provider in Korea. KRW…

MakeSense is a combined team of OnAirSoft and Nsynaps that used to work together at a robot lab, and currently is developing an educational application ‘Sici’ at Hansung University. They have come up with a new say of programming method through a block. The following is BeSuccess’ interview about ‘Everyone’s Programming’ with MakeSense.   – Introduce ‘Everyone’s Programming’ for us. ‘Everyone’s Programming’ is a set of an application that children can even…

The IoT will come into our daily lives more and more, as time passes. BeSuccess met Hellogeeks, a company that is building products that help general consumers to use the IoT technolicy.   ‘BitCube’ made by Hellogeeks is a tech kit that helps a programming layman can easily build a robot out of sensors, motors, LEDs, etc. and set control rules for the robot. – What is BitCube? BitCube is “The world’s…

Korea’s Financial Services Commission has recently abolished the Security Review System that has curbed the growth of the domestic fin-tech industry. Now local experts are heralding the start of a Golden Age of development in the industry. We met ‘Hankook NFC’s’ president, Seung-Ik Hwang, to hear what he had to say about the relaxing of government regulations and to discuss the potential of Korea’s fin-tech industry in 2015. What has changed since the…

A Korean mobile music streaming app company, The Beatpacking Company received a Series B investment. The big news was announced through Su-man Park’s social network. Park elaborated about the investment on his blog, saying “Beatpacking is on the verge of the going on another adventure with Altos Ventures, Capstone Partners that invested $11 million USD; taking risk of Beatpacking’s Odyssey.” Meanwhile, The Bell reported “Beatpacking is in the final phase of finalizing…

For the first time ever, language learners will be able to meet a variety of local native English speaking coaches with the tap of a button. Hellocafe, a tech startup from the US, is launching a smartphone application that offers a real­time, local marketplace for English learners and coaches. For decades in South Korea, English education companies have commoditized learning across a range of formats including classes, phone­based tutoring, video lectures, and test­prep…

Daum Kakao (co-CEOs Saehoon Choi and Sirgoo Lee) today revealed its first transparency report through its corporate website. Daum Kakao reemphasized its philosophy of placing protection of users’ information as its number one priority, and disclosed data regarding user information requests. Daum Kakao also plans to further its efforts to protect user privacy by regularly updating data in the transparency report and by actively engaging in social discussions for privacy protection. “It…

The number of members of SoCar, the largest car sharing community in Korea, passed 500 thousand members last year. According to SoCar, the cumulative number of car sharing members is around 500 thousand members, which is 5 times the previous year. Furthermore, the cumulative number of car sharing is around 520 thousand, which means the average user is around 2,500~3,000 per day. Due to the increased number of members, 700 destinations and…

Jobplanet, korean company assessment platform, announced on the 14th that they acquired total 8.3 million USD from Qualcomm Ventures, Altos Ventures, and Born Angels. Job Planet had initially received 2 million USD from Born Angels and The Ventures last year. Adding this investment, it sums up to total 10 million USD. Qualcomm Ventures and Altos Ventures are the US-based VCs that had been investing in successful global ventures not only in Silicon…